Posted on 04/19/2010 9:06:51 PM PDT by Nodems2000
The plan would see taxpayers footing some of the bill for families facing "difficult social, financial or personal" circumstances Photograph by: fotolia, fotolia The European Union has declared travelling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.
(Excerpt) Read more at ottawacitizen.com ...
The plan would see taxpayers footing some of the bill for families facing "difficult social, financial or personal" circumstances Photograph by: fotolia, fotolia The European Union has declared travelling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.
Antonio Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, proposed a strategy that could cost European taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros a year, The Times of London reports.
"Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life," Mr. Tajani told a group of ministers at The European Tourism Stakeholders Conference in Madrid on April 15. Mr. Tajani was appointed to his post by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The plan -- just who gets to enjoy the travel package has yet to be determined -- would see taxpayers footing some of the vacation bill for seniors, youths between the ages of 18 and 25, disabled people, and families facing "difficult social, financial or personal" circumstances. The disabled and elderly can also be accompanied by one other person. The EU and its taxpayers are slated to fund 30% of the cost of these tours, which could range from youth exploring abandoned factories and power plants in Manchester to retirees taking discount trips to Madrid, all in the name of cultural appreciation.
"The commission is literally considering paying people to go on holiday," Mats Persson, of pro-reform think-tank Open Europe, told Britain's News of the World. "In this economic climate, it's astonishing that the EU wants to bribe people with cheap holidays."
Mr. Tajani said the program will be piloted until 2013, and then fully launched.
Intended to instill a sense of cultural pride in Europeans, Mr. Tajani's human-rights travel will also help bridge the continent's north-south divide and pad resorts' business in their off-season, the Times reports.
Northern Europeans will be encouraged to visit southern Europe, and vice versa. Mr. Tajani wants to ensure people's "right to be tourists" remains intact.
I really don’t understand the part about exploring abandoned factories.
Does ANY of this make any sense? To be honest with you, I don’t understand ANYTHING
How about lowering taxes and cutting regulation so there would be more jobs. This would allow the poor to rise out of poverty and afford vacations of their own. Oh, but then the government couldn’t take them on the silly cultural tours of Europe. Ps...Will the tour operators tell them that the abandoned factories they are visiting are closed due to leftist policies??
This is already done in Germany for the disabled or mentally handicapped.
A right to vacation? Are they serious?
Well, let’s give everyone a big old yacht so they can vacation in the South of Greece with the rich and famous.
Wow. Just wow.
In the ‘olden’ days, I’d wake up, click on a topic knowing that it was a joke post to give me a chuckle for the day.......I just can believe how absolutely stupid this is.
Where is their right to own a pet? get their nails done? go to the hairdresser once a week? go to the Opera? have their own hot tub? have their legs waxed?
I can’t believe these are adults who are actually responsible for setting policy. These headlines belong in Mad Magazine (no insult meant to the magazine).
Vacations are a basic human right?
Oh what the heck - free booze and sex should be a basic human rights too.
“I can’t believe these are adults who are actually responsible for setting policy. These headlines belong in Mad Magazine (no insult meant to the magazine).”
It’s HORRIFYING to me to think, as you say, adults are dreaming up something like this. So, in other words, I don’t have enough money to go on vacation this year because I’m giving it to someone who sits on their rump and cannot afford to go. What has happened to Europe? Are they all nuts over there?
“This is already done in Germany for the disabled or mentally handicapped. “
I’m sorry, no offense to this group, but I’m not a proponent of this. I cannot afford to take the trip I would like to take this year...so that means taxpayers have to send me? Or does that mean that the money I gave in taxes would not allow me to go, so I get the money from the tax “catch basin”? I don’t think so! This is where I really and truly draw the line. What has happened to personal responsibilitiy. When I go abroad I clearly remember the Spanish, particularly the French and the Germans with their “snipets” toward me as a stupid American. Yes, the word is out that we cannot read and write here...Well if THEY can read and write and make judgments like this, who are the stupid ones?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_Through_Joy
Now THIS is scarey. Do you think this is coming to a city close to you in America! Oh my God, I simply cannot believe this. If it’s part of Mein Kampf I’m sure we’ll see a glimmer of it here. Pardon the spelling
same here - the only thing for people in the UK to do is to STOP WORKING ALTOGETHER, and let the system collapse. Between this nonsense and the article last week about the senior citizen who was arrested because he had a penknife in his auto, I’d say its time to kiss people in Europe goodbye!
“the only thing for people in the UK to do is to STOP WORKING ALTOGETHER, and let the system collapse”
Amen to that! It will be over my dead body before I pay for other people to take a vacation. People have criticized me for saying I’m getting out and moving to Panama. If you’re on a death panel and can’t get health care here - why not go there where there’s even a Johns Hopkins Hospital. If you’re going to be taxed into your grave, why not go someplace where taxes are low. If we don’t take back at least the house in November, I don’t see how we can possibly pull our way out of this mess.
I really don’t understand the part about exploring abandoned factories.
In answer to this question, someone later on in the posts made a very good statement. The abandoned factories are abandoned because there were no jobs because the owners can’t pay taxes and employees, etc., etc. WHAT A JOKE
Here goes:
Since I have a right to a vacation, my employer must have a duty to provide said time off. I then have a responsibility to pack accordingly for the destination.
Wow! This is easy! How foolish of me to waste my time pondering Natural Rights and corresponding duties and responsibilities.
I am TRYING to figure out a way to stop working altogether. Let me think.... I really want to keep my little money and not spread it around to people who can’t go on vacation. If they are giving free vacations in europe, it will start here too. Let me think....let me think...Gosh, I remember when I was in nursing school...I didn’t have a vacation for a LONG time. I’m surprised I made it through now that I hear this news about a human right to vacations. It’s so funny, I had to get an education, save money and go vacation the hard way. The irony of all this for me is....the reason I got an education is that I wanted to be able to see the world, which I’ve done. Maybe I should have waited and done it the easy way
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